The White House taskforce on oceans, including the Great Lakes is being reviewed in meetings around the nation. See an introduction and get the report here: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/18923
Its goal includes preservation and protection of the Great Lakes. However, it is silent on POPs contamination of our coastal bays by airborne foreign PCBs, the toxaphene in Lake Superior, and the pollution of the Arctic Alaska with chlordane, toxaphene, and PCBs.
An “ecosystem” approach is recommended with focus on all NATIONAL stakeholders. This is just like the IJC’s approach to the Great Lakes. They have “protected” Lake Superior through a strong ecosystem approach that controls all local inputs. Lake Superior trout contain toxaphene at multiples of the level that classifys dirt as hazardous waste and this problem is ignored as we “protect” our citizens from toxaphene by removing it from fish consumption guidelines.Unfortunately, these “ecosystem approaches” ignore the main source of POPs pollution … global air that is continuously polluted by megaton uses in developing countries.
Internatonal researchers realize this. Why do we waste effort at cleaning up residues while not addressing the source?
Please add your comment to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/interimreport/
Tell them that we want endocrine disrupting and cancer causing chemicals out of our lakes and oceans and that we are tired of our government agencies turning their backs to foreign sourced pollution.
